One of PACA’s goals is increasing public awareness about cooperatives—both about existing co-ops in the Philadelphia area and are open to new membership and also how co-ops work and why they are important.

Former prime minister Babu Ram Bhattarai today said there was no need to recognise cooperatives as the third pillar of the economy citing it was one of the wings of the private sector.

The country has currently adopted a three-pillar economic model, comprising the government, the private sector and cooperatives. However, many argue whether cooperatives should be identified as a separate pillar of the economy as it is one of the components of the private sector.

There is something wholesome and nourishing about being involved with a network of like-minded woodland lovers, who driven by stubborn determination, inspiration, heartfelt ethical decisions and environmentalist beliefs, are banding together to revive local coppice industries against the odds of 21st century capitalism’s globalised markets.

When it comes to ownership, there are few better structures for keeping a community’s wealth local than a cooperative. So why is it that America’s rural electric cooperatives are tethered to dirty, old coal-fired power plants instead of local-wealth generating renewable power?